This document provides an overview of installing and configuring the Apache web server on Linux. It discusses downloading and unpacking the Apache files, editing the configuration files, starting and stopping the Apache daemon, setting up virtual hosting, and some key configuration options. The primary steps are installing Apache from a download or CD, setting up the website directories and files, configuring options like the server name and ports, and testing the server using a web browser.

1. Presented by
Lonnye Bower
Fardin Khan
Chris Orona
APACHE WEB SERVER

2. Introduction
Note: Images courtesy of apache.org

3. Introduction to Apache
• Apache is a web server package that
works under Linux as well as under
other operating systems
• The name Apache comes from the
concept of extensive patching of
existing code
• The primary advantage of Apache is
that it is generally free or available at
modest costs

4. Installing Apache

5. Installing Apache From a CD-ROM
• If your CD-ROM has Apache and you
want to use RPM to install the package,
issue this command
– rpm –i apache_1_3_4.rpm
(substitute the full name of the Apache package)

6. Installing Apache From a Download
• Place the downloaded files in a location
that will be dedicated to the Apache
files, such as /usr/apache
• Uncompress the files using either gzip
or tar and compress
• You must edit the configuration file
– You can find more information about this in
the Readme file

7. Installing Apache… (con’t)
• Uncomment all the Modules in the
configuration file except
– cern_meta_module
– msql_auth_module
– dld_module
• Choose either db_auth_module or
dbm_auth_module; they should not be
used together

8. Installing Apache… (con’t)
• Create the configuration file for Linux by
issuing the command
– Configure
• Compile Apache by issuing the make
command
– The most common error message
encountered concerns the socket.h library,
most likely because TCP/IP is not installed

9. Installing Apache… (con’t)
• The result of the compilation will be a
binary file called httpd
• Copy this file into /bin or /usr/bin,
where it will reside in the path

10. Setting Up the Website

11. Setting Up the Website
• Create the home directory for the
website, we will use
/usr/www/ganesan
• Create 3 subdirectories under the site
directory
– conf
– htdocs
– logs

12. Setting Up the Website (con’t)
• You will find a subdirectory called conf
under the directory where you installed
Apache
– Copy 3 files (srm.conf-didst,
access.conf-dist, http.conf-
dist) from this directory into
/usr/www/ganesan/conf
– If you cannot find the 3 files, use the find
command to find them

13. Setting Up the Website (con’t)
• Rename the 3 files you just copied to
drop the “-dist” portion of the name
• Edit the httpd.conf file to specify
– the port number on which your web server
responds
– the user running the httpd daemon, etc…
• Specify the server name
– ServerName ganesan.com

14. Setting Up the Website (con’t)
• Add a line that specifies the root
directory for your website
– DocumentRoot
/usr/www/ganesan/htdocs
• Edit the srm.conf file to set up the
web home directory and any special
internal command usage
• Edit the access.conf file to set a
basic set of access permissions

15. Setting Up the Website (con’t)
• In the htdocs directory create an
HTML file for the server to read when it
starts
– This can be any HTML file
– The filename should be default.html
• Start the httpd daemon
– httpd –f /usr/www/ganesan/conf

16. Setting Up the Website (con’t)
• Test the web server by starting a
browser and specify the URL
http://127.0.0.1/
• If the system is working properly, you
will see a screen with a list of files in the
htdocs directory

17. Server Configuration

18. Server Configuration
• Make sure the ServerType directive is
set to “standalone”
• Check the Port device to make sure it is
set to the TCP/IP port to which your
Apache server listens
• Set the User directive to either the user
ID (UID) or the user name used for all
web visitors

19. Server Configuration (con’t)
• Set the Group directive to either the group ID
(GID) or the group name assigned to all web
users
• Modify the ServerAdmin directive to include
the e-mail address of the administrator
• Set the ServerRoot directive to the absolute
path to the directory where all Apache
resource and configuration files are stored
– /usr/apache/conf or /etc/httpd

20. Server Configuration (con’t)
• Set the ServerName directive to the
fully qualified domain name of your
server

21. Starting and Stopping Apache

22. Starting and Stopping Apache
• If you are running Apache as a
standalone server, you need to start
and stop Apache manually
– Start with httpd –d rootdir –f
configs
– To stop Apache use ps to detect the httpd
daemon’s PID and use the kill command
to terminate the process

23. A Note on Starting and Stopping
Apache
• Later versions of Apache include a
script that does the start and stop tasks
for you

24. Virtual Hosting

25. Virtual Hosts
• A virtual host is a web server that
resides on one domain but acts as if it
was on another. For example, suppose
you control ganesan.com and
cis454.com. Instead of setting up 2
servers, you can set up a single
machine that serves both domains.
• Virtual hosting saves on machinery and
allows for a lot of flexibility in setting up
web servers

26. Setting Up Virtual Hosting
• If your network uses a name server for
DNS, modify it so that the domain name
points to your web server for each
domain you’ll host
• Use the ifconfig command to set up
the IP address for each domain on your
server
– ifconfig eth0:1 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

27. Setting Up Virtual Hosting (con’t)
• Add the route to the network configuration
using the route command
– route add –host xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx dev eth0:1
• Edit the Apache httpd.conf file to set up virtual
hosting
– <VirtualHost www.cis454.com>
DocumentRoot /usr/www/cis454/htdocs
TransferLog
/usr/www/cis454/logs/access
ErrorLog /usr/www/cis454/logs/errors
</VirtualHost>

28. Setting Up Virtual Hosting (con’t)
• The previous step defines the virtual
host for cis454.com and specifies its
DocumentRoot, since each virtual host
will have different web directories
• If more than one virtual host is defined,
the entries are to be repeated for each

29. A Final Note
• There are many more configuration
options possible with Apache, but they
are usually used for commercial sites
that require authentication or special
handling characteristics

30. Key Terms
• Apache
• conf
• Server Name
• Virtual Hosting
• ifconfig

31. Apache Resources
• For more information on Apache go to
– www.apache.org
– www.apacheweek.com
– dev.apache.org

32. Thank You and Good Luck!
If you have any questions regarding
Apache and/or any part of this
presentation, please feel free to email:
Lonnye Bower at Lonnye@aol.com
Chris Orona at corona@calstatela.edu
Fardin Khan at Fardin24@aol.com